Madison Mayor Paul Soglin asked those responsible to come forward, and told WISC, “striking in silence and in the shadows lies in the heart of cowards and fools”

Soglin also paralleled the graffiti with the events in Charlottesville, Virginia last month, involving a white supremacist rally.

“Given the enabling rhetoric from Donald Trump, particularly since Charlottesville, we know that vicious racist and Nazi attacks have increased,” Soglin said. “While we know that over 99 percent of the people of Madison abhor and reject this terrible act, let it stand as a reminder that there are always a few ignorant people who would destroy our liberty and rights.”

…The Madison Parks Department said the graffiti has since been removed without damage to the monument.

According to Isthmus, “The monument commemorates the Wisconsin men in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who volunteered to fight against General Francisco Franco’s fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War.”

The Gates of Heaven Synagogue is also nearby. There was speculation there may have been a connection as the spray-painting occurred one day before Rosh Hashanah.

The images strongly indicate this was another hate hoax. As you can see in the second and third picture below, the top swastika was drawn incorrectly:

It’s hard to believe anyone would be dumb enough to think this would in anyway help Donald Trump. There have been hundreds of such hate hoaxes in recent years, including many where SJWs spray-painted Swastikas on their own property to garner sympathy.

Most of the comments on Twitter suspect it’s a hoax:

Wow this is really credible. Surely it's not 1 of the dozens of fake hatecrimes we've seen recently. Nah. This one is real for sure!